by Jeff Inlo
Chapter 9
Enin awoke on a cot in command HQ. Morning light cascaded through the shattered front door. A cold autumn wind drifted in behind it. Sy stood at the far end of the room looking over a map of the city. The wizard struggled to sit up. He coughed.
Sy looked over to his groggy friend. He put down the map and walked over to the edge of the small bed.
"How are you feeling?"
"Empty. Tired." was the exhausted reply.
"Your spell saved us."
"What happened? I don't remember much."
"They couldn't break out from the barrier you cast. They ended up digging through the ground. We inflicted a good amount of damage to them while they tried to escape. I guess they thought they were in no shape for another round. They didn't resurface anywhere in the city. This morning, I sent a few men down some of the tunnels. Not very far. Just far enough to see where they go and to see if they heard anything. They all seem to lead back out toward the hills, and I think they're all empty. I've given orders to collapse each of them. Wouldn’t stop the dwarves the way they dig, but might slow them down a bit."
"How many men did we lose?"
Sy stiffened his back. "Thirty."
Enin's shoulders drooped.
Sy felt the same. "I know. I know. It's more than just a waste. This is all becoming a tragedy. I keep wondering what I've done wrong, but I don't have any answers. I just don't know what else I could have done. What's worse is I don't know how to prevent this thing in the future. It seems these dwarves can dig tunnels from here to the hills in half a day. How do I stop them from just popping up anywhere? The wall and the towers helped us against the goblins, but they seem pretty much useless now. All I can think to do is to post more soldiers, but now I have to station guards in the streets as well as around the wall. Tower guards have to watch the town as well as the clearing. I'm going to run out of men."
"It's my fault," Enin professed. He dropped his head back into the pillow, an act of resignation to his own self-doubts.
Sy shook his head. He had spent much of the night analyzing the events which led to the battle. He had gone over the stationing of his soldiers, their responses to his orders, his own tactics. He was not about to place fault with one person or with one decision. "There's enough blame for everybody. No one individual can take full responsibility."
Enin held to his own conclusion. "I can. I should have sensed them. It's been my job to warn you of attacks before they happen. Everybody counted on me. They got right up to me and I still didn't sense them." He pounded his fist on the mattress. "Why couldn't I feel them? They're not humans. How could they get so close? What's wrong with me?"
Sy shook his head. "I can't answer that because I don't understand the magic in the first place. I do understand that I should have been prepared for something like this. In the last season we've seen more than one strange thing. Why is it so surprising to either of us that these dwarves avoid your senses? I don't know why you weren't able to sense them, but I know it doesn't make it your fault. It's not like you were asleep on duty. You were out checking the streets just like me. What else could you have done?"
"I should have sensed them," Enin held to his self-incrimination.
"But you weren't able to. That's my point. What do we know of these dwarves? Very little, I can tell you that. Maybe they just have the power to shield themselves from your senses. It's not like it would be the only difference between them and us." Sy looked away, looked to the broken remains of the front door. Only a small portion of wood hung at one hinge. The rest of the shattered remains had been swept up earlier that morning. "You saw what they were able to do. They're damn strong, unbelievably strong. Who could have thought any of this would be happening?"
His own words rang too true in his ears. Sy shook his head as he considered all the circumstances brought to bear upon them. The enormity of it all was almost too much for a sane man to handle.
"Godson, this is crazy. Goblins, shags, and now dwarves. This is insanity. I keep thinking that this is some bad dream that I'm going to wake up from. Was it so long ago that things were normal? It's hard for me to believe my own job sometimes. I mean, think about it. Over the past season, the majority of my time was spent preventing goblin raids. Goblin raids, for Godson's sake! Say something like that this time last season and I would have been run out of town as a loon."
"You and me both. Look at me," Enin sighed. "How do you think I feel? I'm a wizard."
"Don't knock it. I, for one, am damned thankful for what you can do. That's the only thing that's allowed this town to survive, you and our friend the delver."
Enin gladly grasped the thread of another topic. "Speaking of Ryson, how do you think he's doing?"
"I don't know." Sy brought a hand to his chin as he considered the delver's mission. "I wonder. You know, I haven't thought about it until just now, but I'm beginning to think Ryson's trip and our difficulties last night are connected in some way."
"Hmmm?" Enin puzzled.
"Well, doesn't it seem odd that the delver went out to warn algors about a dwarf war just before we were attacked, also by dwarves."
"Other than the dwarves, what else is the connection?"
"I don't know, but it seems too much to be just a coincidence. I can't help thinking that we're now all involved in the same thing. Maybe this war he spoke of has spread or maybe it's something else. "
"You think Ryson might have been lured from us on purpose?"
Sy just shrugged. "I don't know what to think. If he was lured away, I have to ask why. The dwarves might have been afraid of his speed, or his sword. More likely they might have worried he would hear their digging before they could break through the surface. That, at least, seems plausible. I don't know why it was an elf that came to get him. Maybe the elf was in on it or maybe he was tricked as well. But it doesn't answer why the dwarves attacked us in the first place. What did they want?"
"Perhaps they think we are a threat, perhaps they are just war-like creatures. I don't know anything about the dwarves. I should have tried to read their minds." Enin began to consider how to do such a thing. As often happened, his attention drifted from the topic at hand to the possibility of a new spell. "I wonder how I would go about that. It seems to be fairly common. I've heard of wizards able to cast such a spell. They can see thoughts, not deep hidden ones, not secrets, but they can often read what is being actively considered. I should know this spell. I know it’s just a mix of a basic sight and awareness link. Just let your own thoughts ride the waves of the magic with a sight spell attached. Direct it at thought rather than at seeing. I wonder if it would work on dwarves."
"You can try it the next time they show up, which I hope is never," Sy stated firmly.
Sy's voice brought Enin out of his spell searching thought. He looked about the small cot and decided to rise. He slowly rolled on his hip and threw his legs over the side of the mattress. He labored to his feet. His muscles did not ache, but a weakness penetrated his limbs. He yawned heavily, drinking in the air as well as the magic held within it. The spell he had cast drained him of most of his magical energies, his body was now in the process of recharging. He stretched out his arms first, then his legs as he walked across the room to the maps spread out about the table.
"What are you doing with these?"
Sy pointed to certain marked spots. "I'm trying to pick the best places to put guards in the town. I can't put them on every street, but then again I have to cover every section. If these dwarves can tunnel right under us, they can come up anywhere. The only other thing I can think of is to rig the ground so it would collapse if they tunnel in certain areas. I have some miners out looking at the tunnels before they're filled. Hopefully, they'll have some suggestions for us."
"So, you do think they'll be back?"
"I see no reason to believe they won't," Sy admitted heavily. "The question is how to stop them. If they send more warriors, spread th
em out, we'll be in a whole lot of trouble."
"Should we ask for help?"
"You mean from Connel? I don't know how they'd feel about that. I doubt they'd send men. If they hear about what happened to us, they'll keep every available soldier for their own protection. They may allow us to come live with them under their protection, but I doubt too many of our citizens would even agree to that. No one wants to be a refugee. They'd know what would be waiting for them. Tent cities, crowded unsanitary conditions. They'd have to leave their homes here. I doubt it would happen. I think those who would leave have left a long time ago. What they'd probably be more willing to do is enlist to help save their homes, and that's what I'm going to offer to them. It's really the only solution I can think of."